Fires Blaze Across California Amid Rare Extreme Weather Warning

While thousands of firefighters made progress on the two most urgent blazes burning up California on Tuesday night, a third one that swelled to over a thousand acres in a populated area on Wednesday morning underscored the relentless nature of the states wildfire nightmare.

In Southern California, where the Getty and newly ignited Easy fires blazed, strong Santa Ana winds were creating extreme fire weather , according to the National Weather Service. And in the northern part of the state, where the massive Kincade fire continued to grow in Sonoma Countys wine region, a red flag warning remained in effect as very dry air threatened to fuel existing and any new fires.

All told, nearly a dozen major blazes were burning across the state on Wednesday. The challenging weather conditions stifled efforts to contain them.

Good-morning from the #kincadefire Crews are briefing on todays operations. pic.twitter.com/u5RuW9AFqS

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Good-morning from the #kincadefire Crews are briefing on todays operations. pic.twitter.com/u5RuW9AFqS
CAL FIRE LNU (@CALFIRELNU) October 30, 2019

Around a million Californians were facing blackouts on Wednesday as utilities have cut power in an effort to prevent further fires. On Tuesday, Pacific Gas and Electric cut power for a second time in a week in Northern California, leaving about 365,000 households there in the dark as of Wednesday morning. That figure included over a quarter of the 973,000 people whose electricity was cut over the weekend and still not restored by midweek. In Southern California, SoCal Edison said nearly 70,000 households were without power.

As fires spurred mandatory evacuations for nearly 150,000 people in the northern part of the state and more down in the south, over 2,400 evacuees ended up in Red Cross and other shelters on Tuesday night.

Here are the latest updates on the fires burning across the state.

Northern California

A week into the Kincade fire in Sonoma County, the blaze continued to grow, reaching nearly 77,000 acres as of early Wednesday. While it had destroyed over 200 buildings, the more than 5,000 firefighters battling the blaze made some headway and it was about 30% contained.

Some evacuated areas on the coast were downgraded to warnings on Tuesday, allowing some residents back in. But nearly 150,000 people were still under mandatory evacuation near the fire, with another 30,000 or so under evacuation warnings.